Ever After
by TwilightShadowMistress
Summary: The moment you are born, is the moment you start the story of your life. But not everyone's story has a happily ever after...


**A/N: I wish you all a Happy New Years! And since it's a new year, I figured I'd start off with a new fanfiction on this fresh palette.**

**I've explored fanfiction for a while now. And if there's one genre of fanfictions that always piques my interest, it has to be the angst genre.**

**Sure, the humor and adventure genres are fine and among my favorites but I find the angst genre quite interesting.**

**So I decided, why not try to write one? I probably won't do a great job... but it's good practice in order to expand my horizon and for the sake of practicing how to write different sort of stories. I mean, I can't always write humor. And for Christmas, I got the book Thirteen Reasons Why, which I finished in two days because it is a good book.**

**Reading that book piqued my interest on another topic that this story kinda revolves around (keyword again being kinda). Also, this story is meant to be depressing so if you don't like depressing stories, then you don't have to read this. Also, I'm sorry if this isn't good. Like I said, I'm practicing with different genres.**

**So without further ado, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: All characters of the Mario series belong to Nintendo. I own nothing with the plot line being the exception.**

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><p>A cloudy day with dark clouds threatening to bring rain.<p>

That was the exact cliche needed for this sort of day. Wether it was a coincidence or not, no one could argue that it was perfectly depressing for a day like this.

For a day of a funeral.

In the Dark Lands, near Castle Koopa where their ruler King Bowser Koopa stood by to watch his kingdom, was a crowd of people from all over the world. From different kingdoms came the royal family to mourn for the loss of one of the Bowser's children. Despite the chaos the Koopa King had done in some of the other kingdoms, in all due's respect, they came as a way to show they felt sorry. Even Princess Peach from the Mushroom Kingdom along with Mario and Luigi came to mourn for the dead prince.

The rest of the royal family were standing near the coffin. Bowser was trying hard not to cry, even though his emotions were trying to get the best of him. Some of his children either didn't care if tears were running down their cheek or, like their father were trying to hold their emotions. Bowser's caretaker and advisory Kamek was near the coffin, waiting for those to finish giving their regards before he and Kammy used their magic to bury it in the resting place for the Dark Land royals.

Not all of Bowser's children had decided to attend their brother's funeral though. The exception was Bowser's fourth child, Iggy Koopa. He pretended he would be unable to attend by telling his siblings and his father that he felt sick so he just stayed in his room, watching the funeral from afar.

He cared deeply for his brother but the reason he didn't attend was to avoid the risk of breaking down. The last thing he wanted to do was cause a commotion in a moment like this. Some could argue that not going to his brother's funeral in person was bad enough. But if you knew what could happen if this insane Koopa broke down, then you'd know he made the right choice. His emotions of sadness were meant to be contained somewhere like the comfort of his room.

If only it were anymore comforting. But with all the thoughts he had running around in his head, nowhere he went would feel comforting. He stared outside his window, staring at the crowd of royals and commoners who decided to come to pay their respects. From where his room was, he couldn't see his family let along the coffin his brother laid in. Though it made him glad so many came to pay their respects, it couldn't fix how he felt in his heart.

He probably had the strongest bond with his brother among all his siblings. He was the smartest among his siblings with his eldest sibling Ludwig being the exception. Yet, he couldn't see the obvious signs his brother showed to the point he decided to commit suicide. If he had known, he saw the signs earlier, if he probably paid more attention to these signs and his brother's actions, maybe he could've prevented this from happening. He could have saved him from himself.

But he didn't. He let this happen and didn't even bother to try and help him in any way.

In a matter of time, he could see the mourners leave either in a group or one by one. He knew his siblings and probably his father would be coming back inside soon. He wanted to wait a while until Kamek and Kammy had buried the coffin to visit his brother. Iggy patiently sat down on his bed, waiting for signs that his siblings were returning. A few minutes later, he could hear his siblings' footsteps and the sounds of doors opening and closing shut. He counted how many slammed doors he heard, counting only five.

He didn't worry much about being caught by his siblings. After today's events, they likely wouldn't want to talk to one another, let alone see one another until lunch. For him, he was worried more about running into either Kamek, Kammy or his father. He checked his clock which read 11:25 A.M. He waited another hour to give Kamek and Kammy some time to bury the coffin and just so he'd be sure the coast was clear. An hour of flipping through the books on his bookshelf and sketching in his notebook later, Iggy opened the door to his room to make sure no one was in the hall. When he couldn't see a single guard or any of his siblings, he walked over to his dresser and as he did so, he could hear the rain starting to fall against his window. Even though it'd be a bad time to go outside, he didn't care. He went to the dresser in his room and took out a black robe. He put it on and put his hood on, making sure no traces of his plant like and bright almost neon green hair could be seen and quietly got out his room, making sure his siblings couldn't hear the door open. On the other hand, they probably would've thought it was someone else other than him.

But just in case, Iggy used one of his claws to lock his door so no one could get in if anyone did try to visit him. He quietly walked off to the end of the hall. He went through the corridors of the castle, remembering when he was younger how sometimes get lost considering how big the castle was. Now, he was 16 and figured out where all these corridors led to in the castle.

Whenever he heard someone, he hid himself somewhere let it be a statue or just camouflaged himself among the shadows so he wouldn't get caught. But the only ones who walked by were some of the troops apart of his father's army such as some Paratroopas or Goombas. At some point, Iggy found himself in the living room.

The living room was empty. Hopefully it'd stay that way until he came back.

Iggy opened one of the windows and got out. He looked around to make sure no one was there. He then closed the window and ran off. He listened to the rain fall against his hood. At a time like this, it was soothing and the only sort of thing he'd like to listen to. By the time he got to the bridge that was connecting one part of the Dark Land to where the castle was, he made a run for it, hoping that none of the guards saw him. He hid behind an immense yet large tree to catch his breathe and stay out of view from anyone.

He waited for a few moments until he caught his breathe and continued running. Even though it was unnecessary, he didn't want any sort of attention on him. Despite his doubts, he also knew someone could have seen him and possibly stop him.

In a matter of minutes, he found himself at the Dark Land Cemetery. He remembered overhearing his father speak with Kamek and Kammy on where to bury the casket holding his brother's body. There was a part of the cemetery where only royals of the Dark Land like his mother were burried. Anyone was permitted to visit, but not many people did. When his mother did die, his father used to visit a lot but he stopped to focus more on kidnapping Princess Peach. He opened the gates, enter and closed the gates behind him.

Iggy walked towards the part where the dead royals were burried, feeling the cold water against his scaly feet. He didn't care if he got dirty by the time he returned to the castle. It was one of the few things he could even care about at this moment. He came across a tomb which was for their deceased grand father, Morton Koopa Sr. For all he knew, Iggy had heard that their grand father died during a battle against the Mushroom Kingdom. His younger brother Morton was named after their grand father. Kamek had shown them pictures of their grand father before and he had to admit, he did resemble him a lot. The same dark scales, the same lack of hair, the same star mark on the right eye.

From the looks of things, he knew he was in the right place. There were quite a few graves in the cemetery for the royals. Iggy didn't visit the cemetery a lot. When his mother had died, he'd visit her grave two times every week. Soon, he could only visit whenever he had the chance to which wasn't as often as he used to.

Iggy studied each grave carefully, trying to the name he wanted to find. He stopped by two graves; the first being the one that belonged to his grand father and the next being the one that belonged to his mother. He spent a few minutes at both graves, mostly his mother's since he had known her longer than his grandfather. His grandfather had died before he was born, so it wasn't easy to say he missed him a lot. Sure, he wished he could've met him while he was still alive but it didn't change the fact that his father was the only one who really had a bond with him. He couldn't say it affected him in the least since he wasn't there.

In the scenario with his mother, he had known her for a while and became one of her favorite children despite his insane nature. He had a strong bond with his mother that he'd never be able to re live again. The worst part was, none of them ever knew how their mother died. It was kept a complete secret from them. They only hear the news from Kamek and that was it. He hated not knowing but every time he tried asking his dad or Kamek how their mother died, they'd either try to change the subject, ask him to leave or both. He stopped asking but only asked when the matter came to his mind.

After finding his mother's grave, Iggy didn't have to walk a long distant to find the grave he was looking for. Freshly made, with a brand new tombstone likely created by Kamek and his magic. Even if it were raining, he could it was just by looking at it. He could tell there wasn't any use of magic but regular shovels or else it would've been flat. Except he could see the bumps that were clear from shoveling the dirt.

His eyes moved away from something as minor as when the grave was dug to the words that were carved on the tombstone. Words that he never would have dreamed to see at a time like this, words he thought he'd only see when he was much older, or wouldn't see at all. But they were there, right in front of him, and will always be there to haunt his mind.

_Here lies Larry Koopa._

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><p><strong>AN: Too long for a prologue but I don't care. I enjoy writing long chapters (in story line format rather than script format).**

**Was it good? Was it bad? Got any advice on how to write angst? Like I said, this story is so I can practice and there are more chapters to come.**

**So until my next update.**

**Thank you for reading.**


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